FPSLabs : GameRail

GameRail is the first of its kind with a nationwide, fiber optic network dedicated exclusively for gamers. Will it work and will it be worth the money?

[[ ADVERTISEMENT=34 ]]2006
will forever be known as the year of gaming network performance. We
have seen more gaming-related network advances announced this year than
in any other. Many major communications companies have begun to
recognize our massive market and are poising themselves to profit from
us. Now, we are always looking to squeeze the most performance we can
out of our connections. We are the gamers that don’t just play because
the graphics are pretty; we are out for blood. We play to light up that
scoreboard and become a local legend, even if just on one server. We
asked for a price to be put on the head of our greatest enemy: Lag.
Some of these companies have spent years in development trying to not
only define that price, but to give us powerful weapons against it.
Some of the powerful weapons that have been added to our available
arsenal are software-based, such as PlayLinc, Xfire, and SteelSecurity,
and others are based on hardware, such as the KillerNIC. These
solutions range anywhere from free to almost $300. This is a
considerable amount of money being spent to only eliminate one
particular bottleneck; however, these companies realize how this can
detrimentally affect gameplay, and how we will pay well to simply
reduce it.

Today’s definition of Lag is a culmination of negative effects which
occur while in game. Lag is defined as anything that creates a
stuttering or skip in our framerates - this could be anything, from an
excess of graphical processing and CPU limitations to network latency
and the fact you are still playing on your grandma’s dialup. Products
like SteelSecurity look to reduce lag by optimizing, cleaning, and
implementing preventative measures on your PC. Products like the
KillerNIC attempt to reduce lag by offloading the network computations
to an entirely separate processor on the NIC. While these solutions
will help — and probably gain you a few extra frames and a lower ping
– there is quite a bit of money required for this relatively small
gain.

So here we are in the middle of Q3 2006, and the announcements haven’t
stopped. However, today I bring you something that is beyond what
anyone else has ever attempted — something that is proven solid, and
on a massive scale in comparison to all other product announcements
this year. Imagine a world where you could live in New York, connect to
a server in California, and have a ping as low as 30-35ms. Imagine a
private network, implemented nationwide, for gaming traffic only, where
the normal congestion of the internet does not even come into play.
Imagine no longer, because it has arrived.

Presenting GameRail, the nationwide private network for gaming traffic only.

As with all ideas, GameRail started as a mere spark. This spark
happened to be in the mind of Darrell Gentry. Mr. Gentry is a long-time
gamer and network industry veteran. From being the first Chief
Technical Officer of BroadSpan and a Computerworld Smithsonian Award
Finalist, to co-founding a wireless broadband network to serve rural
Missouri and being involved in server acceleration research at
Washington University; Darrell has spent his life trying to improve the
internet. More specifically, he has been hunting. He has been hunting
down the universal enemy of all gamers: Latency.

I had the chance to get on the phone with Darrell and discuss this
revolutionary idea. It’s a good thing he agreed, because I had some
very sincere doubts about GameRail’s whole concept. My doubts were
probably very similar to the ones you have as you read this article. Is
it all a bunch of hype? How in the hell will they create a private
network for gamers? Is this an ISP I will have to get a link to at my
house? If you use existing lines, won’t you still have the same
problem? However, after this hour-long conversation, I have to say that
I am a believer — and I want to show you what I believe is one of the
coolest advances to come along in the world of gaming.

[[ =PAGE= ]][[ ADVERTISEMENT=34 ]]The Problem

Darrell has been combating misinformation for a very long time. He was
an advisor to a reasearch team at Washington University that was
working on server acceleration in order to reduce lag. The first thing
all gamers try to do when they experience lag while gaming is to blame
it on the server. It’s not so much the server as it is the latency, as
Darrell tried to point out to this research team. Let me explain.

There are several factors that create Latency, or Lag:
- Network Congestion
- Excessive Hops
- Inconsistencies in the connection
- Local computer-related issues
- Server-side issues

This list is what most people are dealing with when they experience
lag. According to one of our amazing politicians, the internet is a
series of tubes and you can’t just dump things in these tubes or they
get all plugged up. While that statement may be completely ignorant,
there is a sliver of truth. Network congestion can severely increase
your latency. In addition, excessive hops can also increase latency. I
think a visual is in order:

More hops than a beer recipe!

Every one of those yellow dots represents what is called a hop, or a
transition from one internet node to the next. Sometimes these hops can
not only take you from state to state, but through several different
backbones. Each of these transitions adds a significant amount of
latency and in between, your gaming packets are also having to deal
with all the other traffic of the internet (i.e. P2P Sharing, Web
Surfing, Email, etc.)

Before you come to me saying that you have some sort of Mega-connection
to your house, like an OC192 line, consider this: Capacity does not
matter when the latency is so high due to congestion and excessive
hopping. Your standard DSL connection could out-perform a fiber
connection if the fiber connection is congested and taking a hop-happy
route. For more on this subject, read Stuart Cheshire dissertation on
Capacity vs. Latency called “It’s the Latency, Stupid.“
[[ =PAGE= ]][[ ADVERTISEMENT=34 ]] The Solution

So what does GameRail offer? They do not offer a product that reduces
existing internet congestion, or reduces your hops across the internet,
or even a rip in the time-space continuum. Instead, they offer an
entirely independent network available to gamers and gaming traffic
only. This network is a nationwide, all-fiber, thing of glory. That’s
right, it is a giant fiber-powered private network just for us. By
moving our traffic over to an independent network, the number of hops
is far less and there is almost no congestion whatsoever. How did they
manage to lay all that fiber? They didn’t. GameRail partnered with
BroadWing to use their nationwide backbone for their gaming network.
This partnership dedicated a significant segment of the backbone to our
traffic, so that not only is there almost no congestion, but we get the
most out of this private network. Not only is this a physical dedicated
network, but they have done everything they can to further reduce
latency and optimize their network beyond even Tier 1 backbones.

Let’s address some of the questions from earlier. First, let me clarify
my NY to California example. Many of you may be saying, “Well, 30-35ms
isn’t that
great of a ping.” On the contrary — that is the best you could get
under ideal conditions. The world is governed by the laws of nature,
and at this time we do not know of anything that moves faster than the
speed of light. Thus, while working with fiber optics, you are bound by
this limitation. When you are speaking in networking terms, you accrue
about 8-10ms of latency for every 1,000 miles the light signal travels.
So, if you were to run a hypothetical 2,500 mile direct line across the
country between New York and California, you would have a ping of
20-25ms at the bare minimum. This is just due to the limitation that is
the speed of light. Considering the fate that your average gamer
attempting a cross-country connection like that will ping between
85-100 on a good day, the reduction in ping is incredible.

You now know that this is a real network that is separate from the
rest of the internet, but how do you get on? The answer is so simple,
it may just boggle your mind. No additional hardware is necessary, nor
will you have to change anything with your ISP. You simply sign up for
the service and run the GameRail software. You see, they have partnered
with many ISPs and game server providers so that you can still play on
the servers you know and love without having to change a thing. Your
game servers will not need to be modified either. GameRail is working
with any and all ISPs and GSPs (game server providers) that will listen
in order to provide a direct peering, or connection, to the GameRail
network. When direct peering is in place with an ISP or GSP, the
packets that are encapsulated by the GameRail software automatically
make the jump to the GameRail network. This avoids the regular internet
entirely. Another visual is in order:

Less hops than a dead bunny!

As you can see, the internet is avoided, along with all of its
congestion. In addition, the number of hops is greatly reduced because
there is no jumping from network to network. There is no harm done and
no extensive changes needed on your part. You are still connected to
both the regular internet and the GameRail network; however, now your
gaming traffic will be routed to the GameRail network. It really is a
near-perfect solution because it requires so little on the part of the
end-user.

As I said earlier, GameRail is working with many different ISPs to
provide superior interconnection with their network. These
interconnections are being created as we speak and in places where they
can’t, GameRail is placing internet drains so you can still indirectly
peer with their network.

[[ =PAGE= ]][[ ADVERTISEMENT=34 ]]

GameRail offers something that was inconcievable before. The ability
for teams, players, and regular gamers to be able to play on any
server, at any time, without having to worry about latency, is
revolutionary. Many of you might be wondering what a service like this
will cost. I have to say that if it is as good as it looks, it is more
than worth the asking price. The monthly charge for GameRail has yet to
be finalized, but will range from $10-$15. This is the monthly rate,
and there will be packages available with significant discounts.
Considering your other options — for example, the KillerNIC which
falls in around $280 — GameRail takes the cake. You could spend $280
on the KillerNIC card that gives you a slight gain if you are playing
within your region, or you could sign up for over 2 years of GameRail
service (calculated at $10/month) which gives you the ability to play
with your buddy across the country with a ping that is less than half
of what it would be on a regular connection.

By the end of the month, GameRail plans on being available in 7
major cities here in the United States: Atlanta, New York, Chicago, St.
Louis, San Francisco Bay Area, Dallas, and Los Angeles. In addition to
their United States network, they have plans to expand into Europe and
Asia near the end of 2007, so our international readers can count on
having this gaming network available, as well.

In short, the price-to-performance on this service is unbelievable,
the concept is revolutionary, and the performance increase is
incredible. With all the hardware available in the industry that claims
to boost your performance, these guys have the hardware to really
increase game playability and you don’t even have to maintain or
upgrade it. This is, without a doubt, the next evolution in online
gaming.

Extra Reading:

- Sign up for the GameRail Beta!
- GameRail’s Official Site
- A nice summary of BroadWing’s Network
- It’s the Latency, Stupid by Stuart Cheshire

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